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Gary_M_Mugford · 10-13-2013, 05:47 AM

Hi all,

Does Calibre have the facility to access complex searches from disk files (editing in a full-screen editor is much, much easier than in a edit box line-editor)? Is there a way to suck in these disk files to a saved search name? Say for example, I would like saved search ForTAidcode123 to go out to a designated area and suck in the search from ForTAidcode123.txt and then run it. This obviously would allow for external editing of the search code.

I've been through the forum search here and I haven't chanced upon the requisite ability being described. What I HAVE been doing is a bit esoteric and demands more of my ad hoc solution than I would like. And all of this for a Bridge buddy of mine who's also a college prof with three Teaching Assistants operating as his minions.

I've set up Calibre on their system so that students can submit essays to a communal folder that is sucked up into Calibre. Each TA has a set of students he or she's supposed to monitor new submissions from and read them. It was easy at first, when the system was a lot smaller despite being low-tech. The TA could sit down, type in a search for each student one by one (the submissions being in reverse date order) and see what was needed for reading. Well, more students this year and two more TA's meant the system started to break down.

So, I created a text file for each TA with a list of the students in the form of a formatted list, each line after the header having a single student's name in the form of: 'or authors:"=Student One (or whatever)".' The text file can be copied and pasted into the search with the old Ctrl-A, Ctrl-C, Ctrl-V sequence (this is obviously Windows). And I use the search buttons to save the search and the Tag Browser to edit it's name to ForTAidcode123 (I'm consistent, if not original). It works, but it DOES basically demand somebody remember to do the saving/renaming sequence when the original file is edited. Murphy feels imminent. I also think I will be coming acropper of the limit for either clipboard text contents OR the length of text in the search box before implosion.

I looked at tagging, but I couldn't see a way to make it work with the import routines. Same issue, I need a list comparison of variable data. And being able to edit the list(s) outside of Calibre would make easy for the minions to work and for the prof to play.

Still, given all the nice SQL tools and stuff already in Calibre and the dandy new DB backend, it seems to me I must be missing something.

Or is this all so micro niche that it doesn't merit further investigation?

10-13-2013, 05:47 AM	#1
Gary_M_Mugford Groupie Posts: 180 Karma: 299 Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: Brampton ON Device: Kobo, Kindle3	Am I Missing Something About Search? Hi all, Does Calibre have the facility to access complex searches from disk files (editing in a full-screen editor is much, much easier than in a edit box line-editor)? Is there a way to suck in these disk files to a saved search name? Say for example, I would like saved search ForTAidcode123 to go out to a designated area and suck in the search from ForTAidcode123.txt and then run it. This obviously would allow for external editing of the search code. I've been through the forum search here and I haven't chanced upon the requisite ability being described. What I HAVE been doing is a bit esoteric and demands more of my ad hoc solution than I would like. And all of this for a Bridge buddy of mine who's also a college prof with three Teaching Assistants operating as his minions. I've set up Calibre on their system so that students can submit essays to a communal folder that is sucked up into Calibre. Each TA has a set of students he or she's supposed to monitor new submissions from and read them. It was easy at first, when the system was a lot smaller despite being low-tech. The TA could sit down, type in a search for each student one by one (the submissions being in reverse date order) and see what was needed for reading. Well, more students this year and two more TA's meant the system started to break down. So, I created a text file for each TA with a list of the students in the form of a formatted list, each line after the header having a single student's name in the form of: 'or authors:"=Student One (or whatever)".' The text file can be copied and pasted into the search with the old Ctrl-A, Ctrl-C, Ctrl-V sequence (this is obviously Windows). And I use the search buttons to save the search and the Tag Browser to edit it's name to ForTAidcode123 (I'm consistent, if not original). It works, but it DOES basically demand somebody remember to do the saving/renaming sequence when the original file is edited. Murphy feels imminent. I also think I will be coming acropper of the limit for either clipboard text contents OR the length of text in the search box before implosion. I looked at tagging, but I couldn't see a way to make it work with the import routines. Same issue, I need a list comparison of variable data. And being able to edit the list(s) outside of Calibre would make easy for the minions to work and for the prof to play. Still, given all the nice SQL tools and stuff already in Calibre and the dandy new DB backend, it seems to me I must be missing something. Or is this all so micro niche that it doesn't merit further investigation?